Re: Was re: RFACS but diverging into philosophic ramblings about future tech...

>inconsistent, to allow grav and FTL but not robot troops. it's not a
>binary choice between modern or SF: there is a ladder of advancement,
>starting with minor improvements over current tech (eg ARs with thermal
>imagers) and ending with the super space-age (eg robot troops). i think
>the Tuffleyverse is halfway up this ladder - far enough to have FTL,
PA,
>some grav, and smart fire control, but not far up enough to have robot
>troops, ubiquitous grav, personal plasma cannons, etc.
>

I agree.  I kind of thought I was getting a somewhat similar idea
across...

This ladder has lots of steps on it, and I think it is plausible that
not
everyone will be on the same step at the same time - for a wide variety
of
reasons.  But in the end, we're trying to argue logically what may or
may
not be possible in what amounts to a fantasy setting, for fun games.  

As I said before:

"But I don't find it nearly as interesting as the alternative, which is
to
self-limit the technological expansion and development in certain cases.
 I
was advocating a technological environment which is of a greater range
of
difference that what you and Tom B and others have suggested.  I was
doing
so not because it makes more sense for it to be that way (in the end,
how
could we possibly *know* anything at all... we're just making educated
guesses), but because it makes for a more compelling story.  I can't
possibly suggest that "my way is more likely than your way, and you are
wrong".  But I think that having the range of technology that I'm
suggesting is both more interesting from a story sense, and more likely
given the way the game was written in the first place.	Though there are
no
specific directives in the rules to this extent (and in fact St. Jon et
al
have gone to great lengths to NOT impose a very detailed universe on the
game system), I get the feeling from stuff in the rules and in the fuff
that it isn't a universe where super-high-tech is totally all-pervasive.

This is entirely a personal subjective view, but I think it makes for a
more interesting gaming environment."

Adrian